13m agoTue 16 Sep 2025 at 9:23pm

Australians too dependent on government, says Sussan Ley

Sussan Ley will warn in her first major economic speech as opposition leader that Australians are too dependent on welfare and universal government subsidies.

Ley will seek to reclaim her party’s conservative economic credentials after the last election, when it offered voters a worse budget bottom line than Labor’s for the next two years, fuelled by a wide array of costly cost-of-living promises.

The Liberal leader will offer a veiled critique of that approach, telling an audience of economists at the think tank CEDA that government “cannot, and should not, shield everyone from every cost of living pressure by writing a cheque”.

While the speech excerpt does not include any major policy announcements, which Ms Ley has said will be formed closer to the election after an internal review, the remarks signal an appetite to retain the Coalition’s “fiscal rules”.

Those non-binding rules include a limit on the federal government’s tax take of 23.9 per cent of the size of the economy, a limit Labor does not formally observe but which has not been exceeded since the time of the Howard government.

Read more from Tom Crowley below.

27m agoTue 16 Sep 2025 at 9:08pmAlbanese, Trump ‘intending to meet’: Labor

Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump are “intending to meet” while the prime minister is in the United States next week, Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil says.

The US president suggested talks between the two leaders would take place “very soon” as he took aim at the ABC’s Americas Editor John Lyons for questions about his business dealings while in office. 

Speaking with Sunrise, O’Neil gave a pretty stock standard answer (the pair enjoy a warm relationship), and laughed as the host pressed her to share more after Trump’s hint.

“Well it’s certainly what’s been intended,” O’Neil said.

“We’ve got two incredibly busy people here. They’re working it through and intending to meet.

“They’ve had a series of really warm phone calls and of course we’ve got that long and rich relationship between the two countries.”

So no rolled gold confirmation the pair will meet but after Trump’s early exit at the G7 (due to the conflict in the Middle East) scuppered a planned meeting back in June, it’s probably understandable.

48m agoTue 16 Sep 2025 at 8:47pm

Government pours $1b for sustainable fuels

Sustainable fuels could be the way to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors like aviation, mining and construction, but they’re costly and not widely produced in Australia.

The federal government’s investing $1.1 billion in grants for low-carbon liquid fuels to stimulate onshore production.

They’re produced sustainably from feedstocks like sugarcane and canola, as well as non-biomass resources like captured carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

Bioenergy AustraliaCEO Shahana McKenzie says the funding is a good first step.

“Additional funding will be needed over the decades in order for us to be able to grow this sector to the size that it needs to be,” she says.

Australia currently exports nearly $4 billion of suitable feedstocks like canola and tallow.

“We are absolutely nowhere near achieving what we could be based on the amount of feedstock we have available in Australia,” McKenzie says.

But the high cost remains the major barrier to rolling out low-carbon liquid fuels more widely.

Tony Wood from public policy think tank the Grattan Institute says logistics will be challenging.

“If you’re going to [use] agricultural waste material — and there’s a lot of it in Australia but most of it is produced a long way from where our cities and refineries are — how do we collect the biological material? … Bring them to central points like what are now refineries and convert them to biodiesel and aviation fuel?” he says.

58m agoTue 16 Sep 2025 at 8:37pmDonald Trump takes aim at ABC journalist as he suggests he’ll meet Albanese ‘very soon’

Donald Trump has criticised the ABC’s Americas Editor during an extraordinary exchange at the White House, telling him “you’re hurting Australia” and he would tell Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about it.

Washington-based journalist John Lyons had asked the US president several questions about his business dealings  including: “Is it appropriate, President Trump, that a president in office should be engaged in so much business activity?”

“Well, I’m really not,” Trump said. “My kids are running the business. You know what the activity — where are you from?”

When Lyons told Trump he was from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Trump replied: “Oh, the Australian — you’re hurting Australia.

“In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me.

“You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.”

Albanese is set to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly next week.

He and Trump have not met since their respective election wins, though Trump’s comments suggest a meeting is planned.

The ABC has sought clarification from the White House and the Prime Minister’s Office.

1h agoTue 16 Sep 2025 at 8:32pm

👋 Good morning

 Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog! I’m Courtney Gould and I’ll be guiding you through the morning.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is spending another day in Papua New Guinea as questions swirl about whether a landmark defence pact between Australia and the island nation will be signed as planned today.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has indicated he could be meeting with the prime minister when Albanese travels to New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting next week (more on that shortly).

Also on the agenda today is a speech from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley. It’s her first big economic address since being elected to the Liberal leadership.

So set aside those The Summer I Turned Pretty edits (yes, I know how hard it is but we can do this together) and let’s dive right in to the news day.

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